Today is International Women's Day. Nina May meets three expats who tell us what it's like to be a woman in their adopted countries

NAME: Caroline Alfston

AGE: 36

COUNTRY: Egypt

OCCUPATION: Dancer, cook and mother of four

I grew up in Wavertree but moved to Egypt 10 years ago to study dance and music. Since then I have been travelling backwards and forwards between Liverpool and Cairo.

In Cairo I have learned to expect the unexpected - you never know what waits around the corner, but I just love the peace and the lifestyle there.

The Western stereotype of the Egyptian woman really annoys me. It is just a misconception that veiled women are servants to their husbands. I have a lot of Egyptian friends and in their relationships they are equal and have the same kind of problems as couples in the UK.

How a woman lives here depends on family culture and religion. Just like in the UK it varies very much according to the class you belong to.

Women of the lower class work very hard for almost nothing. They do cleaning and cooking for foreign families and travellers. They earn about 150 Egyptian pounds - that is about £25 sterling a month.

Women also dress very individually. Some wear the traditional keyab - the Muslim dress - and the galabiya, the traditional Egyptian dress. But jeans are popular as well and a lot of girls wear pointy boots, just like in the UK.

Their children and education are important issues to women here, but it differs from the UK in that every crisis in the Middle East affects the Egyptian economy deeply. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been disastrous for this country.

Right now I have opened a restaurant in Liverpool called Shisha. I dance and cook there, a bit of everything, but at the end of the month I will travel to Cairo again - the ninth time this year.

NAME: Renee Warburton-Haddon

AGE: 66

COUNTRY: Cyprus

OCCUPATION: Retired, mother of two

I was born in St Helens in 1937. When I was 18 and working at a pharmaceutical company I was sacked because I told the personnel manager that I was getting married.

She accused me of being pregnant - which I was not. At least that could not happen in this day (and age). After my marriage I moved to Rainhill and have also lived in Haydock and Ormskirk.

Ten years ago I decided to spend my future life in Paphos Cyprus, mainly because there is too much crime in the UK. The final straw was the murder of little James Bulger.

When I talk to my English friends here, we always say how we wouldn't go back for a gold clock. We do have BBC and all, but it's just much safer and more free here.

People are more laid-back and there is less tension on the streets. The retired ladies out here are much happier and feel much safer than the retired ladies in the UK.

I have always been independent, but in Liverpool we pensioners just drive about in our cars, go out and enjoy ourselves.

Women from Cyprus who are our age cannot understand that. They always ask: "Does your husband let you do this?" For the older women, the man is always the boss.

Unfortunately, wife-beating is still a big deal and the government does not do much about it. In general, women do not have much say in politics here.

But women are very well-educated and I think probably even smarter than in the UK. Anyway, parents always build houses for their daughters. A boy won't marry a girl without a house!

The young girls are very modern and straight-forward, they wear imported clothes and are all stick-slim. But, at the age of 30, they seem to get fatter!

For the future I hope that women will have more to say in the decisions of the government.

NAME: Olive Roen

AGE: 66

COUNTRY: Texas, USA

OCCUPATION: Retired assistant professor of community health nursing

I moved to Texas in 1972, after working in Equador for seven years. I met my husband, Jack, there and we moved to Texas for his work.

When I first met Jack's family, who are from California, women's lib was just beginning. I remember saying it was something I could really get involved in that and Jack's family looked at me with horror.

For most middle-class women in the 70s, their goal was a husband who could keep them in a nice home. Women who had careers were seen as strange.

At the moment, women in Texas are worried about the job situation. It is not easy for anyone to get a job at the moment, but women, in particular, have to work part-time. They don't get promotion because they often have to take time out when they have babies. In many cases women are paid less than men.

Fortunately they are not excluded from the political arena -so there is an opportunity for improvement.

Fact File

* The first International Women's Day was observed across the United States on February 28, 1909.

* Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month until 1914 when women in Europe held rallies on or around March 8 to protest against World War I.

* International Women's Day is now marked by the United Nations.

* It is held to highlight women's struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.